April 06, 2009
King County, Amusement Park

The Associated Press breathlessly regurgitates the King County press release that:

The King County Water Taxi set a new one-day ridership record April 5 as 3,429 riders took advantage of a warm, sunny opening day to make their first trip of the season on the West Seattle-to-downtown passenger ferry.
The AP omits the same detail that the county omitted in its congratulatory press release (but did include in the pre-announcement):
Water Taxi rides will be free all day and riders will receive free Water Taxi buttons and squeeze toys."
Sure. If they gave away free rides on the Seattle Center Duck Boat merry-go-round, they would probably get record ridership too.

But when county government tells us they need to raise taxes because budget cuts put public safety at risk, is it necessary to provide free boat rides (with clowns and balloons, no less)?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 06, 2009 06:24 PM | Email This
Comments
1. Every WA resident needs to realize that the quality of life here was just fine after Gary Locke left office. Billions of deficit dollars ago. Government has grown by leaps and bounds since then, with little to show for it, other than amusement park rides like the water taxi and light rail. Oh wait, that's not even done yet.

If the state was forced to manage its budget and reduce spending, just like private citizens do, we would not need to raise taxes another dime, and the quality of more critical services would improve. Instead, there's just more useless crap year after year.

Posted by: Jeff B. on April 6, 2009 06:34 PM
2. Classic revelation as usual, Shark. Selective reporting yet again. A disgrace to my moniker.

Posted by: PIFan on April 6, 2009 06:36 PM
3. My question is... who's paying for it?

Unless fuel is free today as well... and the workers have agreed to work for free... someone is going to have to pay for the "free ride".

What, the budget "shortfall" isn't big enough?

Posted by: David on April 6, 2009 06:44 PM
4. King County Water Taxi is just, another Tax Payer's Rip-Off dreamed up by silly Liberal politicians. Something that sounds enchanting and will give a wonderful experience for those who partake. It is a service that in no way, provides any sort of dependable service and as such, ridership will never build with enough consistant riders to even meet halfway the cost of the service. It is another unnecessary Burden to the Tax Payer as with all of Government people transportation offerings.

Posted by: Daniel on April 6, 2009 07:39 PM
5. OMG Stefan!

This is precisely why I call them KLOWNS.
RECORD FREE RIDERSHIP (w/ buttons & toys).

This is just priceless.
Are you sure you aren't making this up....a belated April Fool joke??

Only in the People's Socialist Republic of King Kounty would they report on record giveaways.

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 6, 2009 08:22 PM
6. Those weren't clowns, they were local Democrat politicians. On second thought, yeah they were clowns.

Posted by: pbj on April 6, 2009 09:44 PM
7. lol I have been feeding the chickadees where I live, and I can report that I have a record number of chickadees.

Posted by: travis t on April 7, 2009 02:07 AM
8. Yeah, everyone in the eastern part of King Kounty is paying for this farce through property taxes that we didn't get a vote on either. How do they justify this ridiculous taxpayer expense for such a privileged few who get to use it by making people who will never use it pay for it? That's the liberal way. They did the same thing with taxing everyone for flood levies, even if you don't live in a flood plain.

Posted by: Palouse on April 7, 2009 08:12 AM
9. Mr. Cynical, I was going through your last post and had anticipated King Kounty to be King Klownty.

Posted by: swatter on April 7, 2009 12:20 PM
10. Ferries are paid from a completely separate tax base as the general fund budget you are talking about. This is a non-issue.

Posted by: John Jensen on April 7, 2009 12:40 PM
11. Ferries are paid from a completely separate tax base

If by "completely separate tax base", you mean anyone who owns property in King County, then you're right.

Posted by: Palouse on April 7, 2009 12:54 PM
12. John #10

What difference does it make which tax base they are using? They are still giving away services paid for by taxing SOMEONE!

Posted by: David on April 7, 2009 02:31 PM
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